As seen from neighboring structure II:
The ruins on the top of the pyramid were once an elite residential area in the heart of the ancient Maya ruins of Becán — at the time, the ultimate gated community.
Structure IV — Becán, México
Tweets du jour on 2011-10-25
- Free 14 page photography guide from Light Stalking: Long Exposure Photography http://t.co/tbY7VhyV #
Bath toy
Grizzly bears are some really amazing creatures — smart enough to act a bit like humans, unpredictable enough to be hazardous. When we were in South Dakota earlier this Fall, one of the residents of “Bear Country, U.S.A.” was having a grand old time playing with a chunk of wood in his pond.
It was almost like watching a kid play with their bath toy. A big, furry, lethal kid, that is. Should you like a closer look, I’ve included the two images making up the diptych below.
I was really happy with how these turned out, I don’t get much practice with splash photography — much less out in the real world (vs. in a more controlled setting).
Tweets du jour on 2011-10-21
- New Craft & Vision eBook — Making Light 2: Advanced Use of Off-Camera Flash. Review & promo codes here — http://t.co/GHMnag16 #
The Lytro — holy smokes, this thing looks amazing!
I’d heard about “light field cameras” when they hit the news a while back — but didn’t honestly think they’d be commercially available in the next decade.
Turns out they’ll be available by the end of the year. Here’s a CNetTV intro to the little critters (by way of Pixiq):
The idea is that the sensor in the Lytro is covered with little lenses that allow the camera to record brightness, color, and direction of light at each pixel. Apply some processing power to the data afterwards, and you wind up with a camera that lets you focus your picture after you take it.
Amazing stuff, I can’t imagine what these will do in a few more years, once they’ve learned from the original models!
Tweets du jour on 2011-10-20
- Enter to win a new Canon 5D MK II camera body from @Adorama and Scott Bourne. Please RT. Info at: http://t.co/kqCgmEos #
eBook review — Craft and Vision’s Making Light 2: Advanced Use of Off-Camera Flash
You may recall that two months back, I reviewed a book called Making Light: An Introduction to Off-Camera Flash. Well, as you may have guessed, it was just the first of two books by Piet Van Den Eynde.
Today, the Craft and Vision folks released the second volume in the series, called (logically enough) Making Light 2: Advanced Use of Off-Camera Flash. $5 gets you 77 double-width pages of useful material in handy PDF form (read it on your computer, or iPad, or whatever…).
Let’s go through this eBook section by section so you can see if it’d be of use to you:
Introduction
A warm welcome to this book, with a quick reminder of topics in the first volume.
1 More Advanced Techniques
1.1 Going Beyond Sync Speed
An explanation of High Speed Sync, with some examples of how it’s useful in non-traditional situations (i.e., not just for high-speed action, but for daylight fill too). A brief mention of PocketWizard “HyperSync” technology, and its usefulness on Canon and Nikon cameras (as with the first book, unfortunately Piet doesn’t venture beyond the “big two” camera manufacturers in this title).
1.2 Working with Multiple Flashes
In this section, Piet briefly discusses using multiple flashes for more control, essentially a quick follow-on to the first book’s lighting set-up discussion. He also discusses using multiple flashes for more power, hinting at the material on strobes that’s to follow. This section is also easily applicable to all camera brands that provide for off-camera remote-controlled flash (not just Nikon and Canon).
2 Gear
2.1 Advanced Triggering Systems
More information on the latest PocketWizard goodies and a brief mention of some upcoming competitors (this section will age quickly), with another reminder of the utility and financial practicality of optical slaves.
2.2 More Modifiers
This section is a bit of a hodgepodge, but does bring up some useful gear (with links to the manufacturer pages). Softboxes, baffles for them, grids, snoots, flags, beauty dishes, portable backgrounds — they all get their turn here, if only briefly.
2.3 Thinking Outside the Softbox
A quick discussion of non-intuitive ways to use a softbox, modifiers you can make for one, etc.
2.4 More Useful Stuff
Another grab-bag gear section — quick treatments of gels, brackets, clamps, loupes, luggage.
2.5 Outgrowing Your Small Flashes
High-power strobes, and when you want to use them. A quick mention, and probably appropriately so — this technology changes quickly as vendors come up with new goodies for photographers.
3 Ten Case Studies
Just for fun, Piet actually has eleven case studies in this section (“…it goes to eleven!”) that makes up nearly a third of the book. For each case study, Piet shows you the final image, then follows up with extensive behind-the-scenes “making of” essays and additional images showing setups. In the process, he has examples for the use of pretty much all the gear he mentioned earlier in the book. Meanwhile, it’s pretty much camera-brand-agnostic.
4 Four Interviews
Almost an extension of the case studies, this section takes up just shy of the last third of the book, and consists of four interviews with fellow Belgian photographers. Along with the actual interviews, this section includes even case study style examples, tips on the business of photography, links to sites that the photographers recommend, and of course, links to the photographers’ blogs and social media accounts.
Conclusion
A quick 1-page wrap-up, with thanks and acknowledgements.
So, all-in-all a solid offering — particularly valuable for the case studies and interviews that make up the majority of the eBook’s material.
Bubbles in the grass
Another quick reminder to be open to images even when / where you weren’t expecting them:
I caught this image when my daughter and I were walking around looking at the balloons at this year’s Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. One of the trinkets on sale at the fiesta’s concession booths was a battery-powered bubble blower. Here, a kid had just run past blowing bubbles — thanks to an overnight rain, the grass was still wet, so the bubbles didn’t pop on contact with the ground.
The technicolor reflections make for a fun (semi-abstract) shadow self-portrait…
Getting airborne
I’m writing up another eBook review, so have limited time to blog today — but in the meantime, here’s a shot from this year’s Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta:
The Labná Arch
Labná is a neat little Maya ruin that doesn’t get nearly as much visitor traffic as it deserves. On the east end of the “Puuc Route” in the Yucatan, Labná isn’t particularly close to any major modern cities — but it and its neighboring sites are an easy day trip from Mérida.
Should you ever make it to Labná, its arch is its claim to (touristic) fame:
The unusual (and somewhat funny) thing about this arch is where it’s found. Most arches at Maya sites served as ceremonial entrances to the cities — a way to both announce your arrival at the city, and demarcate the boundaries of the city core.
But this arch is different — it separates the royal from the mercantile parts of Labná. This side of the arch (the fancier of the two) is what you’d see as you were walking into the royal part of town (those two ground-level doors may have been where guards were stationed). The other face of the arch, far plainer, announced your arrival into the home of the merely affluent.
I guess some things never change…